Elkhart Indiana

[Av8r3400]

We are headed down to Elkhart for 5 days in a couple weeks to have the MORryde suspension done on our trailer.  (Yea, I know it's the middle of winter...)

Is there anything that anyone can recommend as a must-see in that area while we are there?  We are planning a tour at our trailer's manufacturing facility (Grand Design) and a tour of MORryde of course, but we will have some more time to kill.  Keep in mind we are doing all the local driving in the HDT.

Ideas anyone?

[NeverEasy]

There is an RV museum that was interesting.  

 

[rickeieio]

Rise 'n Roll donuts.......  Try the Amish Crack.

[ARGO]

Search salvage places, several good ones in Elkhart & one just up over border. 

RV museum too

[spindrift]

I knew @rickeieiowould have a food recommendation.  

[Jim & Wilma]

37 minutes ago, ARGO said:

Search salvage places, several good ones in Elkhart & one just up over border.

Bontrager’s Surplus . . . here

Easy to spend at least a couple hours at Bontragers.

[TreyandSusan]

Check hours of operation for all of these places - winter and staffing are affecting them.
Some Surplus Stores
Bontragers RV Surplus - https://bontragers.com
Johnson's Surplus - https://www.johnsonssurplus.com/
Johnsons Discount Center - 1611 West Bristol Street, Elkhart, IN 46514

Sights
RV Hall of Fame Museum - https://www.rvmhhalloffame.org
The following are better in the Summer
Wellfield Gardens - https://wellfieldgardens.org
Quilt Gardens - https://www.visitelkhartcounty.com/things-to-do/attractions/quilt-gardens/

Tours
Grand Design and Mor/Ryde are both very good (MorRyde has multiple facilities and all are different and fascinating)
Alliance RV (Trailers) is a newer facility and is a good tour
Good Motorhome Tour is Newmar (Nappanee - South west of Elkhart)
Jayco (Middlebury - East of Elkhart) also is an interesting tour

Food places are better in South Bend
Elkhart
Breakfast - Granma's House of Pancakes - 3709 S Main St, Elkhart, IN 46517 (a short distance south of the Mor/Ryde Facility)
South Bend
Portillo's Hot Dogs - https://www.portillos.com/locations/mishawaka/
Nedderman's Steak Place -https://www.thesteakplace.com
Goshen
South Side Soda Shop - https://www.southsidesodashop.com/ (popular and OK but not great)

[aknavy]

Second for Rise and Roll. 

[dblr]

Another vote for Rise n Roll, Southside Soda shop is great but only street parking there. I would recommend The Blue Gate for a very good dinner and plenty of parking across the street.

[geodog1]

Second for Granma's house of pancakes

[Radar274]

If you like Cars: https://gilmorecarmuseum.org/ easy drive but probably a little over 1 hour.

[Av8r3400]

Thanks everyone!

[Lou Schneider]

The National Studebaker Museum and the old factory location is in South Bend, about a half hour west of Elkhart.  The Studebaker Bros. started out making highly regarded horse drawn wagons before the automobile age.  I found it interesting to take a driving tour of the former factory grounds, the 6 story, 800,000 sq ft main assembly building and several smaller buildings are still standing.  It seems a main fiberoptic data trunk runs directly underneath the big building and it's being transformed into a major data center.

https://www.studebakermuseum.org/.

RV/MH Hall of Fame museum is a must see.

https://www.rvmhhalloffame.org/

 

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by Lou Schneider

[Star Dreamer]

They only took about 3 days to do our triple axle 5th wheel the week of Thanksgiving a couple years ago. One nice thing is once they have your unit inside, after working hours (shift ends around 3pm) you were able to go back into your trailer for the night but there are some shifts working thru the night so there is some noise to deal with and you have to be up early before the suspension shift starts around 5am if I remember correctly. 

[nawaa]

The Menno-Hof information center in Shipshewana was very interesting. It's a great way to learn about the faith and the histories of the people who populate the area, the Amish and Mennonites. Plenty of parking for your big rig.

[Av8r3400]

On 1/15/2022 at 9:46 AM, Star Dreamer said:

They only took about 3 days to do our triple axle 5th wheel the week of Thanksgiving a couple years ago. One nice thing is once they have your unit inside, after working hours (shift ends around 3pm) you were able to go back into your trailer for the night but there are some shifts working thru the night so there is some noise to deal with and you have to be up early before the suspension shift starts around 5am if I remember correctly. 

We're coming out of northern Wisconsin 🥶.  The rig is fully winterized with dry tanks.  We can't put any water in it or un-winterize it because it will freeze on the return trip before I can re-winterize it again.  So, we are hotel-ing it...

[sandsys]

1 hour ago, Av8r3400 said:

We're coming out of northern Wisconsin 🥶.  The rig is fully winterized with dry tanks.  We can't put any water in it or un-winterize it because it will freeze on the return trip before I can re-winterize it again.  So, we are hotel-ing it...

We've done that with a Class C but not a rig nearly as long as yours. I hope you've researched your hotels well. We thought we had a good one until we pulled into the drive only to learn they'd put a canopy over the entrance with too low a clearance. Had to back out of that one.

Linda

[Star Dreamer]

12 hours ago, Av8r3400 said:

We're coming out of northern Wisconsin 🥶.  The rig is fully winterized with dry tanks.  We can't put any water in it or un-winterize it because it will freeze on the return trip before I can re-winterize it again.  So, we are hotel-ing it...

It will hopefully be quieter at the hotel! 

 

When we lived in MN and did winter car shows, we carried a 5 gallon jug of water in our shower that we used for drinking and clean up and carried a couple of RV antifreeze jugs that we used for flushing the toilet with as our trailer had been winterized too. We just tried to use rest area and truck stop bathrooms when possible as we also knew that we would not be able to dump the tanks until it got warmer.